T he inquest was held that afternoon (Saturday) at two o’clock at the Blue Boar. The local excitement was, I needhardly say, tremendous. There had been no murder in St. Mary Mead1 for at least fifteen years. And to have someonelike Colonel Protheroe murdered actually in the Vicarage study is such a feast of sensation as rarely falls to the lot of avillage population.
Various comments floated to my ears which I was probably not meant to hear.
“There’s Vicar. Looks pale, don’t he? I wonder if he had a hand in it. ’Twas done at Vicarage, after all.” “How canyou, Mary Adams? And him visiting Henry Abbott at the time.” “Oh! But they do say him and the Colonel had words.
There’s Mary Hill. Giving herself airs, she is, on account of being in service there. Hush2, here’s coroner.”
The coroner was Dr. Roberts of our adjoining town of Much Benham. He cleared his throat, adjusted hiseyeglasses, and looked important.
To recapitulate3 all the evidence would be merely tiresome4. Lawrence Redding gave evidence of finding the body,and identified the pistol as belonging to him. To the best of his belief he had seen it on the Tuesday, two dayspreviously. It was kept on a shelf in his cottage, and the door of the cottage was habitually5 unlocked.
Mrs. Protheroe gave evidence that she had last seen her husband at about a quarter to six when they separated inthe village street. She agreed to call for him at the Vicarage later. She had gone to the Vicarage about a quarter pastsix, by way of the back lane and the garden gate. She had heard no voices in the study and had imagined that the roomwas empty, but her husband might have been sitting at the writing table, in which case she would not have seen him.
As far as she knew, he had been in his usual health and spirits. She knew of no enemy who might have had a grudgeagainst him.
I gave evidence next, told of my appointment with Protheroe and my summons to the Abbotts.’ I described how Ihad found the body and my summoning of Dr. Haydock.
“How many people, Mr. Clement6, were aware that Colonel Protheroe was coming to see you that evening?”
“A good many, I should imagine. My wife knew, and my nephew, and Colonel Protheroe himself alluded7 to thefact that morning when I met him in the village. I should think several people might have overheard him, as, beingslightly deaf, he spoke8 in a loud voice.”
“It was, then, a matter of common knowledge? Anyone might know?”
I agreed.
Haydock followed. He was an important witness. He described carefully and technically9 the appearance of thebody and the exact injuries. It was his opinion that the deceased had been shot at approximately 6:20 to 6:30—certainly not later than 6:35. That was the outside limit. He was positive and emphatic10 on that point. There was noquestion of suicide, the wound could not have been self-inflicted.
Inspector11 Slack’s evidence was discreet12 and abridged13. He described his summons and the circumstances underwhich he had found the body. The unfinished letter was produced and the time on it—6:20—noted. Also the clock. Itwas tacitly assumed that the time of death was 6:22. The police were giving nothing away. Anne Protheroe told meafterwards that she had been told to suggest a slightly earlier period of time than 6:20 for her visit.
Our maid, Mary, was the next witness, and proved a somewhat truculent14 one. She hadn’t heard anything, and didn’twant to hear anything. It wasn’t as though gentlemen who came to see the Vicar usually got shot. They didn’t. She’dgot her own jobs to look after. Colonel Protheroe had arrived at a quarter past six exactly. No, she didn’t look at theclock. She heard the church chime after she had shown him into the study. She didn’t hear any shot. If there had beena shot she’d have heard it. Well, of course, she knew there must have been a shot, since the gentleman was found shot—but there it was. She hadn’t heard it.
The coroner did not press the point. I realized that he and Colonel Melchett were working in agreement.
Mrs. Lestrange had been subpoenaed15 to give evidence, but a medical certificate, signed by Dr. Haydock, wasproduced saying she was too ill to attend.
There was only one other witness, a somewhat doddering old woman. The one who, in Slack’s phrase, “did for”
Lawrence Redding.
Mrs. Archer16 was shown the pistol and recognized it as the one she had seen in Mr. Redding’s sitting room “overagainst the bookcase, he kept it, lying about.” She had last seen it on the day of the murder. Yes—in answer to afurther question—she was quite sure it was there at lunchtime on Thursday—quarter to one when she left.
I remembered what the Inspector had told me, and I was mildly surprised. However vague she might have beenwhen he questioned her, she was quite positive about it now.
The coroner summed up in a negative manner, but with a good deal of firmness. The verdict was given almostimmediately:
Murder by Person or Persons unknown.
As I left the room I was aware of a small army of young men with bright, alert faces and a kind of superficialresemblance to each other. Several of them were already known to me by sight as having haunted the Vicarage the lastfew days. Seeking to escape, I plunged17 back into the Blue Boar and was lucky enough to run straight into thearchaeologist, Dr. Stone. I clutched at him without ceremony.
“Journalists,” I said briefly18 and expressively19. “If you could deliver me from their clutches?”
“Why, certainly, Mr. Clement. Come upstairs with me.”
He led the way up the narrow staircase and into his sitting room, where Miss Cram20 was sitting rattling21 the keys of atypewriter with a practised touch. She greeted me with a broad smile of welcome and seized the opportunity to stopwork.
“Awful, isn’t it?” she said. “Not knowing who did it, I mean. Not but that I’m disappointed in an inquest. Tame,that’s what I call it. Nothing what you might call spicy22 from beginning to end.”
“You were there, then, Miss Cram?”
“I was there all right. Fancy your not seeing me. Didn’t you see me? I feel a bit hurt about that. Yes, I do. Agentleman, even if he is a clergyman, ought to have eyes in his head.”
“Were you present also?” I asked Dr. Stone, in an effort to escape from this playful badinage23. Young women likeMiss Cram always make me feel awkward.
“No, I’m afraid I feel very little interest in such things. I am a man very wrapped up in his own hobby.”
“It must be a very interesting hobby,” I said.
“You know something of it, perhaps?”
I was obliged to confess that I knew next to nothing.
Dr. Stone was not the kind of man whom a confession24 of ignorance daunts25. The result was exactly the same asthough I had said that the excavation26 of barrows was my only relaxation27. He surged and eddied28 into speech. Longbarrows, round barrows, stone age, bronze age, paleolithic, neolithic29 kistvaens and cromlechs, it burst forth30 in atorrent. I had little to do save nod my head and look intelligent—and that last is perhaps over optimistic. Dr. Stoneboomed on. He was a little man. His head was round and bald, his face was round and rosy31, and he beamed at youthrough very strong glasses. I have never known a man so enthusiastic on so little encouragement. He went into everyargument for and against his own pet theory—which, by the way, I quite failed to grasp!
He detailed32 at great length his difference of opinion with Colonel Protheroe.
“An opinionated boor33,” he said with heat. “Yes, yes, I know he is dead, and one should speak no ill of the dead.
But death does not alter facts. An opinionated boor describes him exactly. Because he had read a few books, he sethimself up as an authority—against a man who has made a lifelong study of the subject. My whole life, Mr. Clement,has been given up to this work. My whole life—”
He was spluttering with excitement. Gladys Cram brought him back to earth with a terse34 sentence.
“You’ll miss your train if you don’t look out,” she observed.
“Oh!” The little man stopped in mid35 speech and dragged a watch from his pocket. “Bless my soul. Quarter to?
Impossible.”
“Once you start talking you never remember the time. What you’d do without me to look after you, I really don’tknow.”
“Quite right, my dear, quite right.” He patted her affectionately on the shoulder. “This is a wonderful girl, Mr.
Clement. Never forgets anything. I consider myself extremely lucky to have found her.”
“Oh! Go on, Dr. Stone,” said the lady. “You spoil me, you do.”
I could not help feeling that I should be in a material position to add my support to the second school of thought—that which foresees lawful36 matrimony as the future of Dr. Stone and Miss Cram. I imagined that in her own way MissCram was rather a clever young woman.
“You’d better be getting along,” said Miss Cram.
“Yes, yes, so I must.”
He vanished into the room next door and returned carrying a suitcase.
“You are leaving?” I asked in some surprise.
“Just running up to town for a couple of days,” he explained. “My old mother to see tomorrow, some business withmy lawyers on Monday. On Tuesday I shall return. By the way, I suppose that Colonel Protheroe’s death will make nodifference to our arrangements. As regards the barrow, I mean. Mrs. Protheroe will have no objection to ourcontinuing the work?”
“I should not think so.”
As he spoke, I wondered who actually would be in authority at Old Hall. It was just possible that Protheroe mighthave left it to Lettice. I felt that it would be interesting to know the contents of Protheroe’s will.
“Causes a lot of trouble in a family, a death does,” remarked Miss Cram, with a kind of gloomy relish37. “Youwouldn’t believe what a nasty spirit there sometimes is.”
“Well, I must really be going.” Dr. Stone made ineffectual attempts to control the suitcase, a large rug and anunwieldy umbrella. I came to his rescue. He protested.
“Don’t trouble—don’t trouble. I can manage perfectly38. Doubtless there will be somebody downstairs.”
But down below there was no trace of a boots or anyone else. I suspect that they were being regaled at the expenseof the Press. Time was getting on, so we set out together to the station, Dr. Stone carrying the suitcase, and I holdingthe rug and umbrella.
Dr. Stone ejaculated remarks in between panting breaths as we hurried along.
“Really too good of you—didn’t mean—to trouble you … Hope we shan’t miss—the train—Gladys is a good girl—really a wonderful girl—a very sweet nature—not too happy at home, I’m afraid—absolutely—the heart of a child—heart of a child. I do assure you, in spite of—difference in our ages—find a lot in common….”
We saw Lawrence Redding’s cottage just as we turned off to the station. It stands in an isolated39 position with noother houses near it. I observed two young men of smart appearance standing40 on the doorstep and a couple morepeering in at the windows. It was a busy day for the Press.
“Nice fellow, young Redding,” I remarked, to see what my companion would say.
He was so out of breath by this time that he found it difficult to say anything, but he puffed41 out a word which I didnot at first quite catch.
“Dangerous,” he gasped42, when I asked him to repeat his remark.
“Dangerous?”
“Most dangerous. Innocent girls—know no better—taken in by a fellow like that—always hanging round women… No good.”
From which I deduced that the only young man in the village had not passed unnoticed by the fair Gladys.
“Goodness,” ejaculated Dr. Stone. “The train!”
We were close to the station by this time and we broke into a fast sprint43. A down train was standing in the stationand the up London train was just coming in.
At the door of the booking office we collided with a rather exquisite44 young man, and I recognized Miss Marple’snephew just arriving. He is, I think, a young man who does not like to be collided with. He prides himself on his poiseand general air of detachment, and there is no doubt that vulgar contact is detrimental46 to poise45 of any kind. Hestaggered back. I apologized hastily and we passed in. Dr. Stone climbed on the train and I handed up his baggage justas the train gave an unwilling47 jerk and started.
I waved to him and then turned away. Raymond West had departed, but our local chemist, who rejoices in thename of Cherubim, was just setting out for the village. I walked beside him.
“Close shave that,” he observed. “Well, how did the inquest go, Mr. Clement?”
I gave him the verdict.
“Oh! So that’s what happened. I rather thought that would be the verdict. Where’s Dr. Stone off to?”
I repeated what he had told me.
“Lucky not to miss the train. Not that you ever know on this line. I tell you, Mr. Clement, it’s a crying shame.
Disgraceful, that’s what I call it. Train I came down by was ten minutes late. And that on a Saturday with no traffic tospeak of. And on Wednesday—no, Thursday—yes, Thursday it was—I remember it was the day of the murderbecause I meant to write a strongly-worded complaint to the company—and the murder put it out of my head—yes,last Thursday. I had been to a meeting of the Pharmaceutical48 Society. How late do you think the 6:50 was? Half anhour. Half an hour exactly! What do you think of that? Ten minutes I don’t mind. But if the train doesn’t get in tilltwenty past seven, well, you can’t get home before half past. What I say is, why call it the 6:50?”
“Quite so,” I said, and wishing to escape from the monologue49 I broke away with the excuse that I had something tosay to Lawrence Redding whom I saw approaching us on the other side of the road.
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1
mead
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| n.蜂蜜酒 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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recapitulate
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| v.节述要旨，择要说明 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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subpoenaed
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| v.（用传票）传唤（某人）( subpoena的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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expressively
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| ad.表示(某事物)地；表达地 | |
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cram
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| v.填塞，塞满，临时抱佛脚，为考试而学习 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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spicy
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| adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的 | |
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badinage
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| n.开玩笑，打趣 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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daunts
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| 使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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excavation
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| n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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eddied
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| 起漩涡，旋转( eddy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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neolithic
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| adj.新石器时代的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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boor
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| n.举止粗野的人；乡下佬 | |
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terse
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| adj.(说话，文笔)精炼的，简明的 | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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sprint
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| n.短距离赛跑；vi. 奋力而跑，冲刺；vt.全速跑过 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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45
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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detrimental
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| adj.损害的，造成伤害的 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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pharmaceutical
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| adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的 | |
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monologue
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| n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白 | |
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